FROM DUMPSTER TO DOCTOR

A memoir from a man who rose from living unhoused to professional prominence.

Marshall, the CEO of the Dedicato Treatment Center, tells the story of his life, grounding the early chapters in the massive challenges he faced as a young man. The author grew up in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia in a largely happy family, including “cool” uncles and a loving grandmother who took him to New York City to see plays. He was accepted to Temple University, but he wasn’t happy: “Fear had power over me,” Marshall writes. “My need for approval and validation became even more intense.” Soon, he was drinking and using cocaine, and he found himself in a “drug addiction cycle.” His addictions expanded to include crack and spiraled out of his control; his habit compelled him to steal, and he racked up felony charges for nearly a quarter of a century. Curiously, right alongside this deepening addiction was a growing faith in God, leading the author to accepting an adult baptism while still an addict. “I begged God over and over again to free me from the grip of crack addiction,” he recalls, though he received no response. Marshall held jobs while an addict, pursued relationships with many women, and fathered children; eventually, thanks to what he refers to as a miracle, he managed to free himself from his addiction in 2006 and began to reclaim his life, taking classes, earning degrees, and starting his own businesses while doing his best to heal the relationships he’d torched during his years in the wilderness. His writing about those years is very evocative—his descriptions of living “in an internal prison with a life sentence and no parole date” are gripping. Marshall’s inspiring resolve to no longer “walk in fear”—which allowed him to rebuild his credit, pay his bills, and provide for his children and attend their sporting events—is direct and uplifting.

A brutally honest and inspirational story of a man turning his life around.